Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Destabilization of global environmental features such as climate patterns or the
ozone layer must be prevented.
Important ecosystems and ecological features must be absolutely protected to
maintain biodiversity.
The renewal of renewable resources must be fostered through the maintenance
of soil fertility, hydrobiological cycles and necessary vegetative cover and the
rigorous enforcement of sustainable harvesting.
Depletion of non-renewable resources should seek to balance the maintenance
of a minimum life-expectancy of the resource with the development of substitutes
for it.
Emissions into air, soil and water must not exceed their critical load - that is,
the capability of receiving media to disperse, absorb, neutralize and recycle them,
thereby preventing the build-up of toxins that could damage human health.
Landscapes of special human or ecological importance should be preserved.
Risks of life-damaging actions and technologies should not be undertaken.
Ecological economists argue that the economy is a subset of the environment.
Attention therefore needs to be paid to that which adds value. For Douthwaite
(1999b), as all growth involves the use of natural resources, it would be best if
production levels remain stable and resource use be halved. He believes that the eco-
efficiency Factor Four notion (Von Weizsacker et al ., 1997) is a myth because living
better in a materialist society still means producing more. Thus the only sustainable
society Douthwaite envisages is one where population, energy, material production
and conception are maintained in constant equilibrium, with the total value of social,
human, natural and fixed capital passed on to future generations not being less than
that presently existing. A steady-state economy requires sustainable developments
rather than sustainable development. From this analysis Douthwaite draws three
main principles:
The interests of present and future generations must be given equal weight.
Other people's interests must be valued as highly as one's own.
Not everything is tradable (can be sold off for money or increased production).
Some economists believe the general focus on economic growth and the satisfaction
of individual wants is now slowly being displaced by an ethic rooted in the concept,
principles and practices of sustainability, which offers a new approach to economic
organization and a new model for business decision-making (Balakrishnan et al .,
2003). Rampant individualism has given way to a focus on society. The financial
bottom line has been joined by social and environmental concerns to make up a
triple bottom line (Henriques and Richardson, 2004). Opportunity cost no longer
becomes exclusively identified with economic or financial matters, as factors other
than utility need to be considered. The 'best use' of resources is being replaced by
an adherence to 'minimal use', and, instead of seeing growth as the perpetual driver
of economic development, other drivers are coming into view - for example, perfecting
products, earning customer loyalty, providing human enrichment and maintaining
natural ecosystems. As Balakrishnan et al . (2003: 312) write:
Opportunity-cost decision-making is never neutral. Something and/or someone
is always hurt. Ascribing those same underlying assumptions to sustainability,
 
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